Courage
by Ausir
Summary: A WatanukiZashikiwarashi story, that's right you heard me! Takes place after Watanuki saves Zashiki from the Jorougumo. A rather sweet story if i may say so myself.


Just a little something I thought out while supposed to do something else (mmmm… forbidden writing _'drools'_). Anyway, I actually think this is the first Watanuki/Zashikiwarashi fic ever made (in your face, Wata/Dou fangirls!). So, please enjoy.

WARNING! This fic requires the potential reader to have read xxxHolic volume eight or more. If you have not done this, aside from spoilers, this one shot probably won't make too much sense for you, as it relies on events taking place in that volume.

Disclaimer: xxxHolic belongs to all the wonderful lasses at CLAMP; I'm just borrowing their ideas. Though since they were themselves doujinshi artists in the beginning I think they don't really mind…

**Courage**

_By Ausir_

_Plip…_

_Plip…_

_Plip…_

The sound of water splashing in the darkness filled the world around him.

'_Where… am I?' _

_Plip…_

Watanuki felt cold dampness surrounding him; water… the liquid that also fell in small drops upon his face. The young man opened his eyes and beheld the source of the wetness that sprinkled unto his cheek.

Zashikiwarashi was cradling him in her lap, her kimono completely soaked from the pond they were placed in and tears trickling a path down her flushed cheeks. The clear white light of the crescent moon was cast upon the spirit-girl's delicate features, making her seem even more beautiful and other-worldly than usual.

"Thank goodness…" she whispered softly when she saw Watanuki open his eyes "I thought you might never wake up… I was so scared…" More tears followed, and splashed without hindrance down on the black haired youth.

Somewhere in the background Watanuki could hear the Kudagitsune whimper sadly. Also, the five Karasutengu where blabbering something, however, the young man could not discern what, as his lone eye was transfixed with the weeping girl holding him, causing all else to seem so far and distant.

"I'm sorry," Zashiki spoke again, her voice cracking "I couldn't do anything about your eye…" Her tears became even more numerous.

Watanuki reached up with his injured and still bleeding hand to touch her cheek, using his thumb to brush a few of the girl's tears away. He didn't want her to be sad for him.

"No," he whispered "I couldn't do anything either, I'm also… so sorry…"

The spirit-girl continued to hold him, still crying. She wanted to tell him… oh how much she wanted to tell him! But the words wouldn't pass her lips, no matter how much she struggled with them, they refused to come.

Silence reigned supreme but for the light dripping of water. The two continued to stare at each other for a long time, and as the spirit realm is different from the normal world, perhaps that moment even lasted a full eternity.

Yet, all too soon, Zashiki reluctantly had to let go of him, allowing the young man to sink slowly downwards into the deep pond and back to the human world.

_Plip…_

_Plip…_

_Splash!_

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Why are you following me!?" Watanuki barked angrily at the silent companion walking beside him.

"I'm just walking in the same direction," Doumeki answered in his usual cool and enervating way.

"You're too following me!" the bespectacled high-schooler insisted loudly.

"You're noisy…" the young priest grumbled. Watanuki muttered something incomprehensible in response to which Doumeki did not comment, leading to the duo continuing their track in silence.

"Hey," Doumeki said after some time "you're not sick again are you?" If there was concern in his voice he managed to hide it quite well.

"Not really," Watanuki responded "except for getting used to this new eye I've actually been pretty well for a change. Why do you ask?"

The silent young man looked ponderous as he let a few moments pass by.

"I think…" he suddenly said "that I'd like some takoyaki for tomorrow."

"What the…! Stop making orders like that!" Watanuki exclaimed irritatedly.

"You haven't been around Kunogi that much lately," Doumeki said bluntly, once again changing the subject. His companion blinked dumbly.

"Eh?" the bespectacled young man responded, halting in his tracks. The silent priest stopped also, facing his friend.

"Normally you stick around her like a flea to a cat, but lately you've been acting less like an idiot."

Watanuki considered this, not without noticeable alarm, so much in fact that he didn't even hear Doumeki's minor insults. Was this true, had he been neglecting Himawari-chan? He almost wanted to kick himself if that was the case. How could he be so cruel!?

But, oddly, it didn't feel like that much of a deal really… somehow, even the forbidden thought that Himawari-chan might not be the one for him was making its presence noticed. How could this be?

'_Nonononono,'_ Watanuki thought furiously, shaking his head with matching fervency _'Himawari-chan is the girl I like! ...right? RIGHT! No two ways about it!'_

The bespectacled youth started walking again rather briskly, subconsciously trying to use the movement to dispel his inner doubts. It didn't give much of a result. Doumeki easily matched the new speed, again walking by Watanuki's side.

As they had been before, the two nineteen-year-olds once more walked in silence, until…

"Hey, I want some teriyaki also."

"What the… you want me to make _both_ teriyaki and takoyaki!?"

"They rhyme nicely."

"The hell…?!"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Soon enough, Watanuki entered the shop of wishes. He took off his shoes, and was surprised to find that none of the shop's eccentric denizens greeted him.

"Hm, no-one's here?" he wondered aloud while stepping into the hallway.

The whole house seemed deserted, eerily so. While Mokona and Yuuko would sometimes go shopping (that is, whenever Watanuki wasn't there to do it for them), Maru and Moro would always stay in the shop performing some frivolous chore or another.

However, today everyone seemed to have disappeared, and it was making the poor student completely freaked out. He checked the kitchen, the backyard and several other rooms until he felt like he was going nuts.

'_Whatever could've happened?'_ Watanuki thought with mounting anxiety.

'_Were they kidnapped by Yakuza? Or aliens? Have I entered some strange parallel universe?!!'_

With his over-tensed psyche working on overdrive and threatening to snap, the bespectacled student suddenly felt something soft land on his head. Without warning he then came eye to eye with whatever was clinging to his scalp, looking into two enormous and slightly feline orbs.

"Yo!" the eyes owner said jovially.

"Hiyaaa!" Watanuki exclaimed in surprise before being able to recognise the voice.

"Mokona!" he said, feeling a bit angry "Why'd you sneak up on me like that?!"

The black, bunny-like creature jumped happily down from the student's head and landed on the floor. Once there, it pulled out a blue headband with a metal piece on it (don't ask me from _where_ he pulled it), and wrapped it around his head to create a makeshift ninja-style forehead protector.

Mokona then proceeded with pulling out a small kunai (don't ask about that either, you're probably better off not knowing anyways…) and then got into a fierce battle stance. Well, fierce for anything standing shorter than a foot tall…

"Fu fu fu! Mokona is the Silent Warrior of the Night!" he proclaimed smugly and displayed a few ninjutsu moves, finishing with making some odd characters with its… hands? Paws? Whatever… he made a few rapid seals, and then belched out a small flame the size of an egg.

Watanuki blinked.

"Phear my L337 skillz!" Mokona said excitedly, aiming for an air-kick but lost his balance and tipped over onto his back.

The student sighed as he watched the being get back to its elongated feet.

"You've been downloading anime on Yuuko-san's computer again haven't you?" he asked wearily, all his previous worries blown away by the not-so-silent warrior of the night.

"Hmm, maybe…" Mokona answered secretly with a grin.

"Where is Yuuko-san by the way?" Watanuki asked.

Mokona replied by pointing at the door behind him, from whence two muffled female voices could be heard. The young student's jaw dropped.

"What?! I could've sworn I searched that room twice already!" he exclaimed and moved towards the door, intent on giving his employer a piece of his mind.

Suddenly, Maru and Moro materialized from the surrounding shadows.

"Mistress doesn't want Watanuki to go in here" the girls said in unison.

"Why's that?"

"It is very dangerous" Moro explained.

"Very dangerous" Maru repeated.

Watanuki backed away from the door. He had worked at this place long enough to take a hint.

"Um, okay… I'll go make dinner then," he said, sweating just s little "please tell Yuuko-san it'll be done in a couple of hours."

With that the lean young man disappeared down the corridor trying to find his way back to the kitchen. Once he was out of sight, the three guardians exchanged glances and then broke into relentless snickering.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Later that evening, Watanuki was still in the kitchen, now preparing his and Doumeki's bento boxes, while occasionally taking a new bottle of whatever liquor he could find into Yuuko's room, where she and Mokona where getting plastered as per usual.

"Damn that Doumeki and his insane food requests!" the housebroken student complained grudgingly as he checked the pans on the stove where he was preparing several foods that all ended in –yaki.

"Of course they rhyme with each other, it's all fried food dammit!" he continued grudgingly while secretly hoping this lunch would give the annoying priest a fatal heart condition.

"Hey, April firsht! We need mo'e sakeeeee!" Mokona's demand in a slurred voice from what Watanuki had secretly dubbed the 'party room'.

"Hai, hai, I'm coming!" he called back, reaching for three of the white bottles and taking them with him.

"Oh, Watanuki you're so kind!" Yuuko said playfully and clapped her hands together in delight as her man-servant put the sake bottles on the table.

"Hoooray for April firsht!" Mokona cheered while spinning around in his drunken haze.

"April first, April first, written like April first Watanuki!" Maru and Moro sing-sang and danced around the room in mimicry of Mokona's bumbling stride.

"You want anything else?" Watanuki asked "snacks perhaps?"

"Hm? Oh no this is fine," Yuuko answered and was about to wave the young man away, when she suddenly recalled something despite her intoxication.

"Ah, yeah that's right," she said and produced a parcel from somewhere under her robes "Watanuki, would you please take this with you when you go home?"

"Sure, I guess," the student said somewhat hesitantly, but accepted the package nonetheless. He studied it a bit quizzically.

"What is it?" he asked, gently rocking the parcel to see if it would give away any revealing sounds. Yuuko smiled mysteriously.

"Oh, just a little something for the onden-stand Kitsune, you can give it to him whenever you meet him."

"Hm, okay" Watanuki responded and went back to the kitchen.

The other occupants of the room watched him leave, and once his steps had died away, Yuuko voiced a slightly evil cackle.

"It all works perfectly," she said darkly "poor Watanuki doesn't have a clue what's coming for him."

"Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when she comes for YOU!" sang Mokona, trying to sound ominous, though the effect was mostly lost due to his slurring.

"Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do?" Maru and Moro repeated and giggled.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

After he had finally finished the next day's bento boxes, Watanuki decided to call it a day, or as the case where, a night. He left the boxes at Yuuko's shop, figuring he could fetch them on his way to school tomorrow, and started on the now dark road home.

About half way, the street suddenly became very dim, an otherworldly mist appearing out of nowhere. A bit further into the mist, Watanuki could see a familiar light, that of the Kitsune's oden-stand.

"Well, hello my friend!" the fox-owner greeted and waved his paw "you're becoming quite the regular face here."

"Um… hello!" the smaller Kitsune greeted also, running up to Watanuki and bowing. The bespectacled young man bowed in return.

"Good evening, both of you," he said politely and then from his uniform took out the parcel Yuuko had given him.

"I was supposed to give this to you I think" he said, handing over the package.

"Ah, thank you, please give my regards to Yuuko" the Kitsune thanked him and stowed away the parcel.

"Ano… pardon my intrusion…" a soft voice suddenly said. Watanuki spun around in time to see Zashikiwarashi, dressed in a normal girl's clothes, emerge from the mist.

"Ah, it's you!" Watanuki said, causing the spirit-girl to blush.

"Good evening…" she said shyly.

"Good evening to you too, Zashikiwarashi" said the onden-fox as the girl hesitantly took a seat in the booth beside Watanuki. The Kitsune produced two bowls of onden and placed them on the counter.

"Um, I don't have any arrows…" Watanuki said sheepishly. The Fox smiled behind his glasses.

"Don't worry; I'll put it on your tab."

"Ah, okay," Watanuki said a bit surprised and grabbed for the chopsticks "well then; ittadakimasu!"

"…tadakimasu…" Zashiki said with a blush and her heart beating like a jackhammer now that Watanuki sat down just next to her.

The pair ate in silence, enjoying the superb food, but also caught up in thoughts about the other. Occasionally, they would steal glances at each other.

'_It feels… kinda like when I'm with Himawari-chan, but still not the same…'_ Watanuki thought, absently looking over the jeans and pink shirt that Zashiki was wearing, as well as the two hair pins with wing motifs he had given her for white-day.

'_She's really cute this way…'_

He suddenly noticed the girl had some broth on her cheek. Without thinking, he reached for his napkin and gently wiped it away.

"Ah!" the spirit-girl exclaimed in surprise, her face heating up so much that steam came out of her ears.

"S-sorry!" Watanuki said and retracted his hand with a blush of his own.

"N-no, it's a-alright" Zashiki stuttered, taking deep breaths to avoid fainting.

They finished their meals and said their thanks to the Fox and his son, then got up and walked into the mist, soon disappearing.

"Father," the young Kitsune asked "do you think she will tell him?" The older fox nodded and smiled.

"Yes, I do think so…"

"That's good."

"Yes it is."

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"So… um, would you like me to walk you home?" Watanuki suddenly asked after they had left the oden stand. The vestal sprite nodded shyly.

"Y-yes, please… j-just for a bit" she said, fidgeting slightly with a strand of her hair. Watanuki watched her silently as she did.

"You're pretty…" he said absently after a few moments, shocking the girl into almost tumbling over her feet. Watanuki's eyes widened as he realised what he had just said.

'_Oh dang…'_ he thought in slight alarm _'I actually said that, didn't I? Oh Kami, I hope she didn't take it the wrong way…'_

The girl had stopped dead in her tracks and was now looking at the young man while trying to make it seem she wasn't actually looking.

"Do… do you mean that?" she asked hesitantly, fidgeting even more now, her delicate fingers trailing her hair just above her ear.

'_Do I?'_ Watanuki asked himself. He wasn't entirely sure whether he _didn't_ mean it.

"Y-yes… yes I do" he said after a few quiet moments "you're very pretty."

Now the vestal sprite looked straight at him, momentarily forgetting about her embarrassment, and began to ever so slowly close the space between them. Watanuki stood frozen in place like a dear caught in the headlight and watched the girl he had just said was pretty come ever so close.

When barely two feet of space separated the two, Zashikiwarashi suddenly stopped and looked at the ground, shaking slightly.

'_D-did I make her cry?'_ Watanuki thought, subconsciously sharpening his senses to pick up the swishing sound of approaching Karasetengu. He started to lift his hand, for what he didn't actually know, he figured he'd think of something eventually. His hand stopped in midair however when he heard the girl speaking in barely a whisper.

"I… I… I…" she stammered, lifting her hands to her chest and closing her eyes tightly shut.

"I… I like…" she struggled, almost uncontrollably shaking.

"I… I like you, Watanuki!" she exclaimed, without warning lifting her face to look straight into the stunned young man's eyes.

"Y-you do…?" he said, breathless. Zashiki again blushed furiously and returned her stare to the ground. She nodded.

Watanuki was just about to say that he liked her as well, as a friend… but, somehow, he felt that wasn't actually the kind of 'like' he felt for the spirit-girl.

'_B-but I like Himawari-chan… right?'_ he thought, confused. He could not see Zashiki's pleading eyes, but remembered the brief moments they had experienced in the past. And in that instant, Watanuki realised something.

'_I've known Himawari-chan for years, but I've never felt like this around her, not even once… that was always something else… THIS is something more.'_ He absently wrapped his arms around the spirit-girl's frail form, bringing her a little closer to him.

"I… like you also, Zashiki-chan" he whispered, for the first time using her name.

Zashiki's heart skipped several beats as she felt the boy's aura surround her, making her feel warm inside. She lifted her head again, realising how close they actually were, their faces mere inches from each other. But she didn't back away, instead she closed in on the last remaining space, parting her lips slightly and closed her eyes as she kissed him.

_Plip…_

_Plip…_

"You made her cry! AGAIN!"

"Waaaaah!"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Unnoticed to the two fledging love-birds (one of them currently running for dear life from a gang of Karasutengu), their every move was being watched in a magic full person mirror by an evil mastermind, very much akin to the spider in cruelty and twisted geniality. Yuuko smiled and took a sip of her wine. This was _way _better than cable…

"Hey Yuuko, what exactly did she wish for?" Mokona asked curiously, hopping into the lap of its mistress "I couldn't hear anything through the door while I guarded it."

The dimension witch scratched him behind his right ear and took another sip from her glass before responding.

"Oh, the child just wished for some extra courage, that's all" she explained, cupping Mokona's chin with her long fingers and with her free hand produced a small jewelled box.

Mokona jumped down and opened the lid, revealing a pile of small swastika charms made of gold and emeralds. The black bunny-thing took one in his paw and held it up curiously.

"These give you courage?" he asked.

"Not as such, no" Yuuko responded, her grin almost cat-like. Mokona tilted his face to the side.

"Oh? Then why did you give her one?"

"Well, I figured the child wouldn't act on my advice if she didn't believe she could manage it," the raven haired woman explained "so I gave her one of those and told her it was an amulet to make her less nervous."

Mokona chuckled.

"Well, what did you get in return?" The dimensional witch cackled.

"Oh, just some spirit-spirits" she said, taking up a large bottle with glowing liquid in it. Mokona gave a whistle.

"My, my Yuuko, you're a sly one!" he praised. Yuuko made an air of faked bashfulness.

"Ah, shucks…!" she said, waving her hand dismissively, after which the two broke out laughing.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Did you dream something last night?" Doumeki asked, breaking the silence that had reigned since the two students had met some ten minutes prior.

"Huh?" Watanuki asked a bit confused "No don't think so… why do you ask?"

"Last night, with this eye," the young priest said, indicating his half eye "I thought I saw that vestal sprite, really, really up close."

"Ghaaa! You saw that!" the bespectacled student exclaimed in panic.

Doumeki looked quizzically at him.

"Hm? You mean it was for real?" he asked.

"You bet it was! Stop prying into my private life!"

"You're noisy…"

"Shut up!"

Some way away, on one of the myriad rooftops, a young girl wearing a pink kimono and twin hair pins shaped like wings, looked down at the duo making their way to school, paying special interest to the one in glasses. She smiled happily and touched her lips with her palm, then blew a kiss at the young man's retreating back before jumping into the sky.

_xXx Fin xXx_

A/N: Okay, this is my first one-shot, and my first xxxHolic fic so I hope it came out alright.

Just a short note on –yaki, for those who didn't get the joke: 'yaki' means fried in Japanese and is applied at the end of many dishes made in this way. That's why they all rhyme.

Well, please review!

Ausir.


End file.
